INGENIEUR
parties to those instruments may dump at sea.
From a policy perspective, the action is contrary
to the precautionary principle, and if done on a
continuing basis, represents an unsustainable
course of action.
SUB-GLOBAL AND REGIONAL
AGREEMENTS
Many countries have entered into bilateral or
multilateral agreements with other countries on
hazardous waste, mainly in order to co-operate
regionally in hazardous waste management and
provide enhanced regional protections against
abuses connected with poorly controlled trans
boundary movements.
For parties to the Basel Convention, these
agreements must meet the requirements of Article
11 of that Convention, i.e. the agreement should
not provide a reduced standard of protection.
These agreements will need to be taken into
account when countries who are parties to the
Basel Convention develop waste management
strategies. Several types of agreements can be
identified, including:
●●
A greement s among neighbouring
countries or covering a region, e.g. the
Bamako, Waigani, US/Mexico, US/Canada
and Central American conventions and
agreements
●●
Agreements among countries not
geographically linked – The countries
of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD)
have adopted Decision C (2001)107/
FINAL dealing with the transboundary
movement of hazardous waste among
OECD countries.
Within the European Union a considerable
body of regulatory and related action governs
many aspects of waste across all members, e.g.
WEEE and RoHS. These regulatory actions are not
focused on transboundary movements.
Regional agreements in areas other than
waste may contain provisions relevant to waste
management. There are, for example, ten Regional
Seas Agreements covering many of the globe’s
regions (Mediterranean, Kuwait Region, West and
Central Africa, South-East Pacific, Red Sea and
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Gulf of Aden, Wider Caribbean, Eastern Africa,
South Pacific, Black Sea, North-East Pacific).
Protocols or action plans of Conventions often
have solid waste as a priority. One example is the
Convention for the Protection and Development of
the Marine Environment in the Wider Caribbean
Region (the Cartagena Convention), which entered
into force in 1986. Article 6 relates to dumping of
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